A very good article, its last several paragraphs in particular making some important
points which I strongly agree with.  However, this being Monday and me being in a
sarcastic mood, I have to ask:

"[P]eople complain...not about natural history museums, where biodiversity, natural
selection and the greenhouse effect are taken for granted."  Excuse me?  Has Mr.
Pachter ever set foot inside a natural history museum?  Perhaps the staff takes
these for granted (well, the first two, anyway), but I can assure you the visiting
public does not.

"[M]useums felt compelled to...[acknowledge] the fallibility of their own curatorial
decisions..."  Really?  Which curators would these be (he asked, tongue plnated
firmly in cheek)?

And in the discussion of the visitor experience, I find it telling, but not surprising,
that curators and administrators are unaware of the VAST amounts of audience
research that is going on right under their noses.

Alright, I'll stop now...

-- Eugene Dillenburg
Exhibit Developer
Science Museum of Minnesota

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